THE DIGITAL FORESHADOW

By definition video games have sold almost as much as the gross domestic income from Hollywood in the year stated. There is the possibility that video games may induce violent behavior in individuals and that being said are they really an art form. They are.

Video games have helped to improve the PC, making it a necessity to have a certain level of quality in a home computer, based on consumers’ demands for the quality of gameplay. This coming from the advancement of the once stick-like people in games to the now advanced, improved graphics and superior gameplay. The gaming medium has greatly influenced the movie industry by giving it a different template to draw in audiences even further. Examples like “Run Lola Run”, “Being John Malkovich” and “The Matrix” have brought the video game model to film.

In 1925, Gilbert Seldes created a ‘treatise’ on the contributions of art through various mediums such as jazz and movies to name a few. Readers say that these mediums may not have any contributing values to society other than injecting violence and sexual auras. Seldes believed these mediums contributed to the common everyday person’s life.

Video games like the old silent movies expressed movement and Seldes states this is the foundational core of the driving force in video games. But video games have surpassed Hollywood in ‘expressive and fantastic environments’.

Will video games have the lifespan of film and will video games be able to transcend the border into real emotion? Careful study has shown that most game developers are striving to get to that goal. Jack Kroll argued that consumers will never really care about what goes on with a pixelated character on screen, but numerous people have been moved to tears by the death of Bambi’s mother. The question remains will games go the distance of cinema or will Seldes’ “The Seven Lively Arts”, prove that video games can and will evolve into a medium of new directions. That being said there is still a problem in the gaming industry related to their boring and predictable qualities and this could be the reason a great many games may have gotten away with excessive violence because the masses just do not take them seriously. In the future though,a great many individuals in the industry are striving to provide thought-provoking deep games that will hopefully transcend into the future.

Are the statements of Henry Jenkins valid; I think he has some very valid points.

Throughout his article he references early Hollywood, other forms of art in regards to paintings and other social media as valid and evolving forms of social art forms. When did an industry that is only maybe thirty decades young, become something that cannot evolve to a format where human interaction can induce real emotion. I am speaking of the gaming industry; an industry that has in my opinion surpassed the movie industry and other forms of art, as the keystone of interactive media entertainment for the masses. This is